Liberal leadership: Kathleen Wynne to become next premier of Ontario

Edges front-runner Pupatello after Kennedy, Sousa make dramatic move

Sandra Pupatello, right, congratulates Kathleen Wynne after Wynne becomes the new leader of the Ontario Liberal party at the Ontario Liberal Leadership convention in Toronto on Saturday, January 26, 2013. The 59-year-old Toronto politician will be the province's first female and openly gay premier.

Photograph by: Frank Gunn
, The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Ontario Liberals made history twice over Saturday in choosing Kathleen Wynne as their new leader: she will become the province’s first woman premier, and the country’s first openly gay premier.

Wynne defeated front-runner Sandra Pupatello on the third ballot by 1,150 delegate votes to 866 at the Ontario Liberal Party’s leadership convention.

The MPP for Toronto’s Don Valley West riding is a former minister of education and transportation. Until resigning from cabinet to pursue the party leadership she was serving as minister of municipal affairs and housing, and of aboriginal affairs. She will replace the resigning Dalton McGuinty to become the 25th premier in Ontario’s history.

Wynne’s victory marks an apparent shift to the left-of-centre for the Liberals, who faced a choice between Wynne and the centre-right establishment candidate Pupatello.

A total of 2,016 votes were cast in the third round, with 4 spoiled ballots. Wynne earned 57 per cent of the vote.

Party president Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre, announced the third-ballot results at around 8:30 p.m. In a show of unity, Wynne and Pupatello joined him on stage for the announcement.

After the final results were announced, Pupatello addressed the crowd first, saying that she was delighted. Though she didn’t win, she said, “I had a ball. We had the guys on the run and Kathleen and I were in front from the beginning.

“Tonight we made history. Tonight’s final vote had two strong women on the ballot.

“We are not about the left or the right. We are about going forward, and that is what we are going to do.”

When Wynne took the microphone, she addressed Pupatello directly. “I am going to need you,” she said.

After thanking her campaign workers, family and partner Jane Routhwaite, her focus shifted to the task before her. “Believe it or not, this was the easy part,” Wynne said, inviting all the candidates to join her on stage. Once there, she asked them to send a message that despite a hard-fought campaign, she would need the help of all Liberals to face the challenges ahead — unnamed this night, but including widespread labour discontent, a $12-billion deficit, a criminal probe into the province’s air ambulance service, Ornge, and the fallout from the political decision to cancel the construction of two gas plants in Liberal ridings. “It’s about taking the momentum and forging that bright future, and getting back to the legislature,” Wynne said.

She had previously announced she would recall the legislature, prorogued by McGuinty in October, on February 19 to show Ontarians that Liberals can make the current minority government at Queen’s Park a functional one.

Wynne also sought to dispel the stigma that being a Toronto candidate brings in some eyes, promising “to be premier of the whole province.”

McGuinty appeared onstage partway through Wynne’s speech, greeting his successor with a hug. The current premier is expected to meet with Ontario Lt. Governor David Onley on Monday and formally announce his resignation. Wynne will then become premier-designate until she is formally sworn-in, but she told the crowd Saturday the Liberal caucus would meet Tuesday to start work.

A mother of three grown children, twice a grandmother and a former conflict mediator and school board trustee, Wynne was first elected in 2003 as part of the first McGuinty majority. She became known as a giant-killer in 2007 when she defeated PC leader John Tory in his hand-picked Don Valley West riding.

Naqvi, who remained neutral during the campaign, praised the choice of Wynne, describing her as a great listener. “She is the one who brings people together,” he said.

Ottawa mayor Jim Watson issued a statement Saturday night congratulating his former cabinet colleague Wynne. An ex-McGuinty minister, Watson had refused to say publicly during the campaign which candidate he was backing, but said in his statement that Wynne “was always someone who brought tact, skill and enthusiasm to her work, and I know she is passionate about building an even stronger Ontario.”

Watson said he looked forward to working with the new premier on transit and infrastructure issues, and to ensuring the province maintains its commitment to the current provincial-municipal upload agreement.

Though Pupatello had earned a narrow lead over Wynne in the second round of voting, third- and fourth-place candidates Gerard Kennedy and Charles Sousa then withdrew from the contest and joined Wynne’s camp, positioning her for the win.

In a dramatic mid-afternoon sequence of events, first Sousa and his supporters, then Kennedy and his group crossed the convention floor at Maple Leaf Gardens to join Wynne’s throng, all but assuring her of victory.

The received wisdom going into the voting had been that Sousa would go for Pupatello and Kennedy would team up with Wynne.

So there was near-bedlam on the convention floor when Sousa made clear he was heading in Wynne’s direction. The Wynne camp exploded in sheer joy, while the Pupatello camp was suddenly funereal.

Sources told the Canadian Press that Mississauga’s 91-year-old mayor Hazel McCallion helped convince Sousa — who holds a seat in the city west of Toronto — to cross the floor to Wynne. But Sousa said his choice was really about getting the legislature back as soon as possible.

Kennedy, meanwhile, released his delegates, telling them to support whomever they chose. But as he set off across the floor to join Wynne, a vast number of his supporters joined him. “I think Kathleen has the closest approach to making the party come to terms with itself and ask itself some hard questions,” he told reporters as he walked. “You’ll see a big stream of people behind (me) because this is where they want to go.

“This is about a purpose more than a person, and this is where that purpose belongs.”

Wynne supporters couldn’t believe their fortune when both Sousa and Kennedy made the move to their candidate.

“Man, I feel like a woman,” said Sheila Gervais, who lives in Hunt Club. “I’ve been working for 30 years to have a woman elected Liberal leader and I could not be more euphoric.”

Neha Shukla, a former Carleton University student now waiting to go to law school, said she found Wynne’s victory inspiring. “Growing up, you don’t see many people talking about politics without being mean. Wynne shows you can have politics without being the meanest,” Shukla said.

Patricia Pepper, the Nepean-Carleton Liberal riding association president, looked forward to a result she thought long-deserved.

“Finally, Ontario has caught up with the rest of Canada and we are going to have a woman premier,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Harinder Takhar had moved to the Pupatello camp after the first round’s results were announced, while Eric Hoskins had joined Wynne after some apparent lobbying from health minister Deb Matthews.

In the second round of voting, Pupatello earned 817 votes to Wynne’s 750. Kennedy stood in third place with 285, and Sousa in fourth with 203. Takhar had effectively ended his campaign by going to Pupatello before the second round, but because he missed the deadline to formally withdraw his name appeared on the ballot, earning 18 votes.

According to the rules, the candidate with the fewest votes after each ballot fell off the list and the remaining candidates, unless they chose to withdraw, carried on into the next round of voting. After the first ballot, delegates who had pledged support to one candidate or another became free to vote as they wished.

First-round totals saw Pupatello and Wynne virtually deadlocked with 599 and 597 votes respectively. Kennedy was in third place with 281 votes. Takhar earned 235, Sousa 222 and Hoskins 150, eliminating him from contention.

Wynne’s better-than-expected first-round showing, and her rousing performance during the candidates’ morning speeches, established the day’s tone from the start. On the floor of Maple Leaf Gardens Wynne’s supporters were by far the happiest group after the first results were announced.

Those numbers suggested Wynne had earned more votes than anticipated from the convention’s more than 400 ex-officio delegates — riding association presidents, former MPPs and other party officials, who were free from the beginning to vote as they wished.

Coming into the convention, Pupatello had a slight edge with 504 committed delegates to Wynne’s 463. Kennedy entered in third place with 257 delegates of the convention’s roughly 2,200. About 1,800 of the delegates were elected in ridings across the province, and were committed to cast their first-round ballot for their candidate.

The campaigns had pulled out all stops Saturday morning to give the impression that they had momentum going into the crucial second round.

Campaign workers for Wynne were busy distributing an editorial from the Hamilton Spectator endorsing Wynne as the best choice for premier. Kennedy’s campaign was letting everyone know about a poll by Forum Research Inc. which shows that a Kennedy-led Liberal party would win a minority government in the next election.

All candidates had campaigned hard into the late hours Friday night, wooing supporters from rival camps.

Kicking off the day, interim federal Liberal party leader (and former NDP premier of Ontario) Bob Rae urged party members to stick to Liberal values of compassion, arguing that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak are cut from the same cloth and practice the same kind of harsh politics. Rae warned delegates about “this party cocooned in the ideology of the right, which brought great damage to the province of Ontario and is causing great hardship to the people of Canada, and will bring even more were that party to be returned to power in Ontario.”

He paid tribute to outgoing premier McGuinty, and urged Liberals to remain steadfast, warning that Canada cannot afford to throw away the legacy of liberalism.

“We want every child to be hungry for knowledge, not hungry for food,” he said.

As the candidates made their case to delegates inside Maple Leaf Gardens, unions representing public servants staged a noisy demonstration outside, accusing the Liberals of taking away worker’s rights.

Several people at the demonstration warned that the Liberal government will pay a price at the polls if it persists in “abusing” workers.

“What they are doing is a slippery slope. Where will it end? Whose rights will take over next?” said one teacher who refused to give her name for fear of retribution.

“We want to drive home to the Liberal government that their practices are not good for unions and they are not good for Ontario,” said Andy Lomnicki, vice-president of the Toronto chapter of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.

Thousands of public school teachers, labour union members and their supporters thronged the streets outside the convention throughout the day, raining boos on Liberal candidates who ventured outside, a reminder of just one of the challenges Wynne will inherit.

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Sandra Pupatello, right, congratulates Kathleen Wynne after Wynne becomes the new leader of the Ontario Liberal party at the Ontario Liberal Leadership convention in Toronto on Saturday, January 26, 2013. The 59-year-old Toronto politician will be the province's first female and openly gay premier.

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